Prof. S.Y. Wang

Prof. William S.Y. Wang and Dr. James W. Minett have recently published a new book titled “Language, Evolution, and the Brain”.This volume consists of an important collection of papers presented at the Seminar on Language, Evolution, and the Brain (SLEB), hosted by the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Kyoto, Japan, bringing together distinguished researchers with backgrounds in cognitive science, anthropology, linguistics, robotics, physics, etc. Major topics discussed include:

Creoles and pidgins, and their implications regarding language evolution.

Quantitative analysis and modeling of various aspects of language evolution, including the evolution of lexical items and color terms, the emergence of linguistic categories, and the dynamics of language competition.

The evolution of the human brain, and how that relates to language evolution.

The evolution and role of mirror neurons in both humans and non-humans.

Evidence that the influence of language on color perception (an example of the Whorf Effect) is stronger for the right visual field than the left.